You are good, good, oh…You are good, good, oh…
You’re never gonna let, never gonna let me down…
Bethel worship “King of My Heart”
I have been challenged lately about my beliefs around God’s goodness, despite what my current circumstances are or how I am feeling.
It is easy to declare God’s goodness and praise Him when everything is going well and you feel the blessings all around you. Life is good so God is good.
It is a little harder when things are not going so good, everything seems to be unravelling. Life’s bad, so does this mean God is no longer good?
Of course not and I have been challenged to believe and declare God’s continual goodness in the midst of tests and trials.
Romans chapter 8 verses 35 and 37 says
Can anything separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us (emphasis mine).
God is good all the time
Extremely difficult things happen in life, bad things happen to good people; an 18 year old gets brain cancer, a baby is born with abnormalities, a retired couple loses their lives savings, horrible crimes take place. Things don’t make sense to us and life can be hard. We live in a fallen world and Jesus says in John chapter 16 verse 33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
What a wonderful assurance to have! It doesn’t mean suffering doesn’t exist or that it won’t hurt. But it does mean that if we keep our focus on Him we can experience peace and even joy in the midst of it all.
Declaring God’s goodness in good times and bad times isn’t always easy but I believe something supernatural occurs when we do.
Psalm chapter 92 verse 15 says
They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is nothing but goodness in him!”
Nothing but Goodness in Him
Do we truly believe God is good? Not just sometimes but all of the time? And not just a little bit of Him but all of Him?
In one of Bethel Worship’s clips on YouTube titled, “King of my Heart” featuring Steffany Gretzinger & Jeremy Riddle//Live at Bethel Church, Steffany speaks about God’s goodness which really spoke to me.
She says, “sometimes we sing something because we believe it and because we are sure, sometimes we sing it until we are sure, until we know. So if that’s not your conviction today; that He is good and he’s been good since the garden before that, then I want you to sing this over yourself…”
Obviously it doesn’t just have to be singing but it could be declaring and believing that God is Good and he isn’t going to let us down.
Sometimes it feels like he has let us down and sometimes we just don’t understand why some things happen. This is when I find comfort in Isaiah chapter 55 verses 8-10:
“My thoughts are completely different from yours,” says the Lord. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
I encourage you to trust and believe that God is Good, not just sometimes but all of the time.
Jo Fuller is a primary school teacher with degrees in journalism and education. She lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast with her husband and young son and they are soon to welcome baby number two!
Jo Fuller archive of articles may be viewed at http://www.presserviceinternational.org/jo-fuller.html
Jo Fuller lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast with her husband, son and daughter. Jo is a teacher with an education in journalism and early childhood who loves to spend time with her family and enjoys reading and writing whenever she can.